New England Learning Association

For those of you who are still not sure they will attend Thursday’s panel discussion Creating a Learning Culture in a Biotech Setting, here is a preview of some of the questions that will be discussed:

• The Biotech and BioPharma industries have a wide range of audiences that you have to deal with, from scientists, and doctors, to sales people, administrators and even folks on the manufacturing floor.  What are the different learning styles that you have to deal with because of this?
• Given this wide range of learners and learning styles, what different delivery technologies do you use and how do you provide a blended learning approach that supports them all?
• This industry is heavily compliance driven. How does this impact what you do, and how you need to deliver the training?
• What is an example of one of your current projects and how does it take all of this into account
• What are your one or two key learnings or success factors that you have gained from this work that you think would really help anybody in the audience who is faced with the same types of challenges when rolling out training?

If you want to learn the answers to these questions and more, don’t miss the event.

Click here for the full event description and registration information.

Event Date: April 19, 2006

Join the New England Learning Association in a special session with a panel of thought leaders in the field of Localization in e-Learning as we explore what it takes to get your arms around a localization initiative. It involves more that just words.

This panel discussion is a special session at the eLearning Guild’s Annual Gathering 2006.  NELA members may attend this session and visit the eLearning MainStreet Marketplace for FREE by Registering Here.

Event Date: Friday March 31, 2006

The Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD), with the support of the New England Learning Association (NELA),is bringing representatives from 20 leading Canadian learning solution providers for a two-day visit to Boston on March 30-31,2006. While in Boston, the Canadian delegation will host a product showcase and half-day networking event on the morning of Friday, March 31, featuring presentations from New England-based thought-leaders in the learning industry.

Learn more or Register here.

Event Date: March 30th

Join senior learning executives from Serono Inc and Wyeth BioPharma as they lead a discussion about the challenges of creating a Learning Culture with a diverse learning audience ranging from scientists to sales representatives, each with a preferred learning style.

What is the best method of learning for a large, multi- cultural biotech/biopharma organization? The answer is “It depends.” First on what must be learned and more importantly, on who is doing the learning?

The challenges of creating a Learning Culture start with a diverse learning audience ranging from scientists to sales representatives, each with a preferred learning style. Mix in the need for a flexible learning curriculum, knowledge assessments and multi-lingual technology tools and the result is an approach to employee development that matches learning methods to learning styles.

Moderator: Doug Foster, Learning Consultant, D Foster Associates

Speakers:

• Mike Laffin: Director, Learning & Organizational Development at Serono, Inc.
• Kevin Kovalcik,Training Technologies Manager at Wyeth BioPharma in Andover

Event Details:

March 30, 2006
5:30 Registration
6:00-6:30PM Networking and Appetizers
6:30-7:30PM-Panel Discussion.
7:30-8:00PM-Q&A Session
SHARE (Consulate of Switzerland)
420 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02138 (directions)

Register Now

For those of you who were not able to make Dr. Ally’s presentation on The Use of Wireless Mobile Learning to Bridge the Learning Divide, Elluminate has made it available as a recorded session.

Dr. Ally led a very thoughtful discussion about the “Learning Divide” and how it may be bridged using new wireless mobile technology such as the $100 laptop.  The session prompted many questions about the requirements for both re-working the content for mobile use, as well as re-educating the developers and learners to take advantage of the technology.

For those of you with more questions, you may contact Dr. Ally directly by e-mailing him or calling him at (800) 788-9041 ext 6406. Additionally, you may use the comments section below to comment on the talk and start further discussion.

For those of you who were not able to make it to Saul Carliner’s talk, here are some of the highlights of the night.  You can also read his pre-event questions, or join in on some of the post-event discussion.

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University Research Project the Design of Online Instruction and Information

As discussed at Saul Carliner’s talk, he is currently looking for people to participate in a University Research project.  I have attached the file to this post (MS Word required), and a brief outline below.

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Many people last night told me that they were having interesting conversations and debates after Saul’s talk and the questions he raised.  A few people even mentioned continuing that discussion on this blog.  So I have created this post for people to start their comments.

Please use the comments section to post your thoughts.  If a larger topic or debate starts, we can create a separate article or category for that discussion as needed.

Welcome to the New England Learning Association’s New Blog. New Technologies bring with it new ways to communicate. The NELA BLOG as it will be known, is a work in progress that is designed to let the learning and technology world share ideas, thoughts, success stories and more. As our mission statement says: The New England Learning Association (NELA) brings together professionals in industry and education for the purpose of advancing the successful adoption of technology for learning.

NELA is an organization known for connecting New England to the rest of the world with its new Global Chapters project, co-sponsored events with other countries and consulates such as the Canadian, Swiss and Irish. In addition to successful webinars and physical events throughout the year that NELA produces, the NELA BLOG gives us a unique opportunity to share the before, during and after of these events with others who could not attend or would like to share their comments.

The NELA BLOG is looking for thoughts and content from lots of places. Let’s take advantage of what blogs have to offer together. We are looking for participants, thought leaders, writers and users to offer their insight and comments. We are looking for what your success stories are. How do they make an impact to the industry? What did people really learn?

If you are a thought leader send us a few paragraphs that outline an article. Start a conversation on a relevant topic. Tell us what’s next. If it is interesting to you it will be interesting to others. We will get responses and feedback from all over the world. From India, the U.K., Switzerland, Canada, Italy and many more. Thought leaders who have already accepted an invitation to participate are from vendors, users, research firms, colleges and schools.

We want to hear from everyone. This is your opportunity to participate in an unbiased, non-threatening way. We are not looking for a compilation of every other blog cut and pasted into this one. You can get that anywhere. NELA will continue to be different and relevant. User experiences and how that is relevant to the industry,that is what really matters. So please, take a minute to think about what would really make this blog useful to you and let us know. The more you participate the better it will be.

What should you do first? Tuesday’s speaker, Saul Carliner has posted questions in advance for comments and discussion.

Due to security at the Cananian Consulate, remember to pre-register for the NELA event Tuesday Evening January 24.

Sincerely,
Allan Cole

New England Learning Association

• Is m-learning the next big thing in e-learning? If so, what makes it so hot?
• What’s happened to learning objects? Have they gone underground like 80s music? If so, when can we expect their revival?
• In his new book, Marc Rosenberg announces that we’re moving Beyond E-Learning. Is that someplace we want to go?
• Everyone says that, because the current generation of young people is addicted to video games, workplace learning needs to morph into the Sims and Delta Force. But how much does everyone really know?
• In its just-released 2005 Industry Report, TRAINING Magazine declared that the classroom “ain’t dead yet.” So when?

I’ll explore these and similar issues this Tuesday, January 24, 2006, in my presentation, “Seperating the reality from the chatter in learning theories.” 6 - 8 pm, at the Canadian Consulate, Three Copley Place, Suite 400, Boston, MA 02116.

Saul Carliner